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Response Handling

In NixPHP, every route must return a valid HTTP response that implements Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface.

To make this easy, NixPHP provides global helper functions for generating different types of responses.

The response() Helper

The response() function creates a simple HTTP response with a body.

use function NixPHP\response;

return response('Hello World');
  • Accepts a string for plain text or HTML content.
  • Sets the Content-Type header to text/html; charset=UTF-8 by default.

Important:
If you want to send JSON data, you must use the json() helper explicitly.

The json() Helper

Use the json() helper to create a proper JSON HTTP response:

use function NixPHP\json;

return json(['message' => 'Success']);
  • Serializes the given array or object to JSON.
  • Sets the Content-Type header to application/json; charset=UTF-8.
  • Allows you to optionally set a custom status code.

Example with a custom status:

return json(['error' => 'Unauthorized'], 401);

The render() Helper

Use the render() helper to render a view and return it wrapped in a response:

use function NixPHP\render;

return render('home', ['name' => 'World']);
  • Loads the specified view from app/views/ using dot notation.
  • Escapes variables safely using s().
  • Wraps the output into a text/html response.

Redirect Responses

You can create a redirect response using the redirect() helper:

use function NixPHP\redirect;

return redirect('/login');
  • Sends a 302 redirect by default.
  • Optionally, you can specify a different HTTP status code (e.g., 301).

Example:

return redirect('/dashboard', 301);

Custom Responses

For full control, you can manually create responses:

$response = new \NixPHP\Http\Response();
$response->getBody()->write('Custom content');
return $response->withStatus(202);
  • Set custom headers, status codes, and body manually.
  • Useful for advanced use cases or non-standard responses.

Summary

  • Use response(string) for plain text or HTML.
  • Use json(array|object) for JSON API responses.
  • Use render(view, variables) to return rendered HTML views.
  • Use redirect(url, status) to redirect users to another page.
  • Always return a valid PSR-7 Response.